Date: Tue, 17 Oct 1995 23:07:20 -0400
From: Mary Ann Murphy
Subject: Right to adopt a child
Following is this month's sample letter on lesbian, gay & bisexual issue.
It is to be sent to your Congress Member.
Please let us know if you send a letter fax or call - we'd like to know
if our effort is working.
October 17, 1995
The Hon.
The U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Representative
You may soon be asked to vote on an appropriations bill for the District
of Columbia. Please oppose any provision in it that would eliminate or
restrict the right of lesbians or gays to adopt a child.
It is my understanding that the bill's original language prohibits
adoptions by lesbian or gay singles or couples, but that substitute
language is being considered to permit adoptions by them, but only if
they are single. I oppose either effort. Please vote against any
provision in this or any other bill that would prohibit or limit the
right of lesbian or gay singles or couples to adopt a child.
Despite all the right-wing conservative rhetoric about this issue, there
is simply no evidence to suggest that a child is harmed by being raised
in a lesbian or gay family. In fact, numerous studies have shown that
children growing up in gay and lesbian families end up as well adjusted
as those who grow up in heterosexual families. The denial of a lesbian
or gay person's right to adopt children is discriminatory and violates
the due process and equal protection provisions of the United States
Constitution.
Justice Barbara Keenan, of the Virginia Supreme Court, wrote in her
dissenting opinion in the Sharon Bottoms adoption case that the "adverse
affects of a parent's homosexuality cannot be assumed without specific
proof." Even our Canadian neighbors recognize the right of homosexual
couples to adopt a child. In a decision in Ontario in June, Judge David
Nevins said that the Canadian Law that prohibited adoptions by homosexual
couples was discriminatory and "could not be justified in a free and
democratic society." It can't be justified here either.
It is appalling that there are so many children that need adoptive
parents and yet caring, loving people might be denied the right to adopt
them. As long as a couple can demonstrate that they are responsible and
can provide the financial and nurturing needs of the child, they should
be allowed to adopt regardless of whether they are married, unmarried,
lesbian, gay or heterosexual.
Please oppose any effort to restrict or limit the right of gays or
lesbians to adopt in the District of Columbia or anywhere else in the
United States. Love makes a family; nothing less, nothing else!
Sincerely